Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez, Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez (left to right) in episode 8 of Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez.
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Netflix/Netflix
Erik Menendez spoke out against the new Netflix series, Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, which looks back on the trials that convicted him and his brother, Lyle, of the murder of their parents.
In a statement shared by his wife, Tammi Menendez, on X, Erik criticized the show, saying it misrepresented him and his brother and that there were “blatant lies in the show.” He accused co-creator Ryan Murphy of intentionally misrepresenting the facts surrounding their crime.
“Murphy crafts his horrific narrative through vile and appalling character portraits of Lyle and myself and disheartening smears,” he said in the post shared Thursday.
Erik added: “It’s sad to me that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime has pushed painful truths back several steps, at a time when the prosecution was constructing a narrative based on a belief system that men were not victims of sexual abuse and that men experienced the trauma of rape differently than women.”
Ryan Murphy Productions and Netflix did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In 1989, Jose and Kitty Menendez were gunned down in their Beverly Hills mansion. At the time, Lyle and Erik were 21 and 18, respectively. Police initially believed that mob members had targeted their parents. But the brothers later said they killed their parents after years of physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
In 1993, their trial was broadcast on national television, becoming a media sensation that deeply divided public opinion over the brothers’ motives—whether they acted in response to abuse or out of greed for their parents’ fortune.
A cousin supported the defense’s harassment claims, saying Erik had spoken about them before. But prosecutors argued the abuse allegations were fabricated and that the brothers were instead motivated by greed, including inheriting millions of dollars.
Their first trial ended in a unanimous jury verdict. But after a retrial, in which the judge did not allow the defense to fully present the brothers’ sexual abuse allegations, Erik and Lyle were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1996. Both are currently serving time at Richard J. Donovan Prison in Southern California.
Nearly 30 years after their conviction, Netflix is revisiting the brothers’ crime and court proceedings in a nine-episode drama series starring Nicholas Alexander Chavez as Lyle and Cooper Koch as Erik. In a press release, Netflix described the series as an exploration of the question, “Who are the real monsters?”
This is the second season of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s crime anthology series. The first season focused on serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
